[Tainnor]

You're arguing for including historical motivation in order to make a definition seem more immediately useful and intuitive. I agree with that.

What the person you replied to is suggesting, however, is that this can only get you so far. At some you have to sit down and study the formal definition and understand how it relates to the examples you've seen so far. Otherwise it's very easy to have your intuition lead you astray.

[tsimionescu]

I'd that's what they're arguing, then I fully agree. My fear was that they're arguing that the formal definition is the only thing that you should spend time on, that the original motivation is irrelevant - this is what I was trying to argue against.